The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-02-18
FRAUDS DETECTED"
Sermon by Rev. II. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D.
How Sin Is Found Out, Either In the
world Around, the World Within, or
the World BeyOnd-The Only
Safe Hiding Place.

BROOKLYN, N Y, Feb 13.-Dr Talmage
chose for his text to-day the twenty third
verse of the thirty second chapter Of Num-
bers: ''But if ye will not do so, behold, ye
have sinned against the Lord; and be sure
your sin will find you out" His subject
was: Frauds Detected" The sermon is
as follows:
On the map of Palestine, Reuben and
Cad lie on the east side of Jordan. When
the Israelites, after their forty years wan
dering in the wilderness, reached the bor-
ders of the promised land, these two tribes
asked leave to settle down there at once.
They also promised to go over Jordan and
help their brethren drive out their enemies.
But Moses was not very sure about them.
He told them that, if they kept their word,
all would be we'll; and then said: ''But if
ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned
against the Lord and be sure your sin will
find you out"
What a solemn sayingl How it gr1eves
you! The very sound of the words strikes
terror into US. The sinner SkuLks, and fees,
and does all that he can to hide himself; but
sin is an avenger or detective on his track
The detective follows with slow and noise
less steps, but he is sure. He will not be
brlbed, he can not be outwitted by the
criminal He may seize the trembling sin
ner any day, and seize him he shall some
the frightened Ahab: "Hast thou found me,
o, mine enemy?'
There are three worlds in which sin finds
US out-the world around; the world within;
the world beyond.
In the world around sin finds the sim
ner out, for sin is the mother of all shame
sorrow and suffering Yet every sinner
fancies that sin will not find him out. Visit
our prisons. I am sure every prisoner
there believed he would not be caught
He knew that others had been caught, but
he expected good luck, as he calls it. He
was like the silly gambler who is sure
that he will win, lose who may. HIS sin
was done so cIeverly, and in the dark. All
sinners are like these prisoners.
1t IS amazing in how many ways sin
finds men out. In the year 1900, France
being then at war with England, a Danish
vessel, suspected of being in the French
service, was captured at Kingston, West
Indies. But the charge could not be
proved. The sailors of the war ship Aber-
gavenny, then at the same station, were
amusing themselves with catching sharks.
On opening a shark, they found in its nav
a pocket book containing bills of lading
which proved that the captured vessel be
lOngcd to the enemy. The captain, when
pursued, had thrown his pocket book into
the sea, and the shark had devoured it.
The captains sin found him out through
the maw of the shark, and his ship became
a British prize.
If you read your history you will gather
proofs of my text-millions of them. For
all history echoes the words of Moses, the
first historian: ''Be sure your sin will find
you out" All the great writers and poets,
especially Of the heather world, have one
favorite theme. They trace the career of
the successful sinner; he moves along
fearless, naughty, defying Heaven; but an
awful form is on his track, with upIifted
hand grasping the sword of justice, and
noiselessly stealing nearer and nearer him,
while he IS surer of nothing than this-that
his sin will not find him out. The blow falls
upon him like thunderbolt from a clear
sky.
These great writers love to bring out
what is called poetic justice. They show
what every page of history proves, that
with the sinner it is "like for like" and
measure for measure;" the slayer is
slain, the cheater is cheated, the doer is
done, the bitter bit, the snarer shared in
his own net.
g Blood for blood, and blow for blow,
Thou shalt reap as thou didst SOW;
Age to age with hoary wisdom
Speakest thus to men.
/ will give you two of the most striking
instances of this ] have yet met with. In
1893 Louis XIV, of France, destroyed the
tomb Of the Emperors of Spiers by the
hand of an officer named Hentz; and on
the very same day in 1913, exactly one hun
dred years afterward, by one Hentz, the
representative of the people, the tombs of
the French Kings at st. Denis were broken
open, and the ashes of Louis XIV. were
the first scattered to the winds. That was
a case of ironical retribution-that is,
punishment which seems cruelty to
mock the sinner, by giving him his own
sin back to his own bosom.
Not many years ago Mormon Bishop
named Lee was shot on the very spot
where twenty years ago he had massacred
a company Of emigrants. As he sat down
on the coffin provided for his body, while
the soldiers were preparing for his execu-
ton, his eyes rested on great cross over
the grave of his victims, with this inscrip-
ton: vengeance is mine, will repay,
saith the Lord.'
One of the shortest and most telling ser
mons / ever heard was by a friend who
had charge Of a hospital. Going round his
wards with him one Sabbath morning we
came to a young man whose secret sins
had found him out. As the doctor laid bare
his hideous sores-the sight was enough to
siclzen you-he said in a slow and solemn
tone: "Be not deceived; God is not
mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For''-still uncov-
ering and dressing the running sores-''he
that soweth to the flesh shall of his flesh
reap corruption" The poor mans face
changed color, his eyeballs grew larger,
and I felt as if I had been present at the last
judgment
81 can not look on one OF my Children
said the father of a large and respectable
family, "without seeing in them the effects
of the sins of my youth" His sins had
ruined his health and theirs. These are
not pleasant things to say, but you need to
be told them.
The whole Bible is a sermon on my text
The first sin-the sin of Adam and Eve
how soon it was found outi Cain, was not
he found out3 The very earth cried out
against him and the mark on his forehead
advertised his crime to all the world. The
sinners in Noah's day were found out by
the flood; on Lots day, by the destruction
of Sodom. Joseph's brethren in Egypt,
Achan and mis- Babylonish garments, Ge-
bazi and his gold, Jonah in the storm,
Haman hanged on his own gallows, Man
asseh and his blood-shedding, Judas and
his pieces Of silver, Anannias and Sap
phlra-all, all found out
Think of the children Of Israel in the
wilderness, under their judges and kings,
at the Babylonish captivity, at the destruc-
ton Of Jerusalem, and now scattered over
the earth-their sin ever finding them out;
and every chapter in Revelations reads the
same warning. The world around is like
the glaciers, those vast rivers Of ice, that
creep from mountain tops into the Swiss
valleys. Sometimes knapsaclSs, and even
travellers have fallen down the gaps or
cracks in them, hundreds OF feet But by
sure law Of nature, every article at length
comes to the surface, and IS lifted aloft, as
If by hands Of snow So sin somehow is
always moving towards the surface.
The poet Hood illustrates this point in
his poem called 'SThe Dream Of Eugene
Aram" Aram had murdered a man, and
cast his body into "a sluggish water, black
as ink, the depth was so extreme" Next
morning he visited the spot
= And saw the black accursed pool,